Summer time is creeping up on us, and many people are headed out for vacations. This usually means a trip to a theme park, and one of my favorites of all time is Silver Dollar City. Silver Dollar City has some pretty good rides to offer. They might not be the biggest or fastest, but they will provide plenty of memories and have some of the best theming in the industry. SDC also is the king of water rides in my opinion. You can find other versions of the water rides SDC offers at other parks, but they are rarely themed well, and come across as cheap imitations. In this article I’ll be sharing a memory of a water ride that some loved and some hated, but was the biggest thing in the city for many years. As the title reads, I’m talking about the Wilderness Waterboggan.
The Wilderness Waterboggan debuted at Silver Dollar City in 1987. It is categorized by many as a log flume style ride, although I have always viewed it more as a water slide really. As I mentioned above, you could see the attraction from a far. Well technically you could really only see the tower/station and the first turn. The tower could even be seen from the road before you make the turn to enter the park. Once in the park, you could see the top of the tower, reaching above pretty much everything else in the park. The closer you got to it, the more frightening it got. The entrance to the tower was right underneath the first turn, and that's all you could see of the rest of the ride. As a small child this always freaked me out, as it was a turn into the unknown, and I was sure If I rode it, I would fly off of that first turn to my death.
The Wilderness Waterboggan debuted at Silver Dollar City in 1987. It is categorized by many as a log flume style ride, although I have always viewed it more as a water slide really. As I mentioned above, you could see the attraction from a far. Well technically you could really only see the tower/station and the first turn. The tower could even be seen from the road before you make the turn to enter the park. Once in the park, you could see the top of the tower, reaching above pretty much everything else in the park. The closer you got to it, the more frightening it got. The entrance to the tower was right underneath the first turn, and that's all you could see of the rest of the ride. As a small child this always freaked me out, as it was a turn into the unknown, and I was sure If I rode it, I would fly off of that first turn to my death.
After several years, I finally got enough courage to ride it in the early 90’s. The line for this thing was always long, so it usually took 45 minutes, which only made the fear set in more. About halfway up the tower, it splits off into two slides. At this point an attendant would weigh riders so that the toboggans weren’t overloaded. Once again this did nothing but make me more scared, as If the employees were afraid of overloading the boat, it was certain to be a deathride. Once at the top of the tower it was time to ride, but that was the last thing on my mind. It seemed like we were so high in the air. You could see a lot of the park, and could even see as far as the town of Branson West! I watched as others got in the toboggans and were sent off to death ahead of me. I just knew I was going to be the one to go flying off the side. Once on the toboggan, I was now more uncomfortable sitting that close to other strangers than I was about the ride. To this day that is the most uncomfortable I have ever been on a ride. Once my boat took off, it wasn’t too bad until we got to the tunnel. The rest of the ride was in a darkened tunnel with really sharp turns that would cause you to fly way up on the side. Of course at this point, I’m just expecting the boat to tip over and then I’m dead. The ride continued on twisting and turning in a darkened tunnel until finally coming out at the end, seeing daylight, and arriving.
I only rode this a couple more times growing up. After a break of not going to Silver Dollar City during my teenage years I finally went back around 2004. Since I hadn’t been in awhile I decided to try and ride every ride in the park at least once. So once again I found myself on the waterboggan. However I noticed after the first turn, there was no more tunnel. Apparently in 2003 completely overhauled the slides, and renamed the ride The Water Works Water Toboggan. You seem to now get wetter than before as well as losing the intrigue of having the tunnels.
The ride finally closed down somewhere around 2010. Honestly it really didn’t hurt my feelings too much as it really lost its intrigue for me when it was renovated. I have read and heard many reasons why it closed. Everything from cost of operations and injuries to room needed for expansion. You always hate to see things go that you grew up with, but sometimes it's best if they do and the Wilderness Waterboggan was one of those. To the best of my knowledge, the tower still stands to this day, but I'm sure it will come down in due time. below are some pictures taken during the deconstruction, and an on ride video. Enjoy!
The ride finally closed down somewhere around 2010. Honestly it really didn’t hurt my feelings too much as it really lost its intrigue for me when it was renovated. I have read and heard many reasons why it closed. Everything from cost of operations and injuries to room needed for expansion. You always hate to see things go that you grew up with, but sometimes it's best if they do and the Wilderness Waterboggan was one of those. To the best of my knowledge, the tower still stands to this day, but I'm sure it will come down in due time. below are some pictures taken during the deconstruction, and an on ride video. Enjoy!
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